The entire universe is pretty much aware that when it comes to Chicago, there is a distance between political reason and justice. This morning after awaking from a wonderful relaxing Obama free holiday weekend, I open the Chicago Tribune to find this story about former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich:

Justices are asked to scale back or strike down prosecutors’ key tool for public corruption cases

November 30, 2009

By David G. Savage

Tribune Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The nation’s most potent law against public corruption could be in danger of being scaled back or struck down by the Supreme Court, threatening a series of high-profile cases, including those of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Washington lobbyists who worked for Jack Abramoff and several jailed corporate chiefs.At issue in court arguments in early December is a ban on “honest-services fraud,” often used against public officials who accept money, free tickets or well-paying jobs for their spouses and children in cases where bribery cannot be proved.”In Chicago, this was our go-to statute. Every major public corruption case in the last 10 years relied heavily on an honest-services charge,” said Patrick Collins, formerly a top anti-corruption prosecutor for U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago. These cases include the conviction of former Gov. George Ryan.The trial of Blagojevich is set to begin in June, but Collins said it could be derailed by a high court decision. “If the court were to gut the statute, the prosecution would have to think long and hard about how to restructure the case. (Honest-services fraud) is the core operating theory of the case,” he said.In Washington, anti-corruption activists fear the court’s ruling could take away from prosecutors their best tool for combating the culture of gift giving and cozy deals between lobbyists and members of Congress and their staffs.”It would undercut public corruption cases across the board,” if the court struck down the law against honest-services fraud, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Opponents say honest-services fraud is vague and ill-defined. It fails to spell out, for example, the point when a friendship turns into a criminal scheme. Julian Solotorovsky, another former federal prosecutor in Chicago, said the court should strike down the law and force Congress to spell out what is a crime. “There is no vaguer statute on the books than this one,” he said. “I’m surprised it’s taken 21 years to get this before the Supreme Court.”

In New York, the former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is on trial in an honest-services fraud case for allegedly obtaining $3.2 million in private consulting fees from clients who had business before the legislature. His fate is before the jury.

Last month, a jury in Washington was told Abramoff’s lobbying operation spent more than $5 million between 2000 and 2005 doling out free tickets to sporting events and concerts for members of Congress and their staffs. But the jury could not reach a verdict on a series of honest-services fraud charges against Kevin Ring, a former congressional staffer who worked for Abramoff. The judge put off a retrial until the Supreme Court rules on the law.

In recent decades the Supreme Court has made prosecuting public officials more difficult.

My reaction to this story while seemingly defeatist, should be understandable when one takes into consideration where I live. Blago will get off free as a bird. If corrupt Illinois politicians actually went to and stayed in jail, would we really have corrupt Illinois politicians???

Todd Stroger (D-IL) Cook County Borad President and the reason for 10.25% sales tax in Chicago. The highest in the nation.

I have a very clear idea that Illinois is a lost cause. The citizens of the “Land of Lincoln” will continue to elect corrupt Democratic politicians such as Blago, Daley, Todd “sales tax 10.25%” Stroger, and others I will not mention. Despite Stroger’s veto of the tax roll back, he remains on the Democratic primary ballot for Cook County Board President. His challenger Cook County Clerk, Dorothy Brown, withdrew from the race after withdrawing her challenge to signatures on Stroger’s nominating petitions. Interestingly, the only “corrupt” Illinois politician that has remained in jail is former Gov. George Ryan who is a Republican. Gee, I wonder what that is all about?

The linking of cooking, holidays and my mother in memories that bring traumatic feelings of hunger, humiliation, homelessness and dread, remains the perhaps the most paramount reason for my offering of thanks today.

I did not expect to spend Thursday preparing a turkey for three. An ill cat threw a monkey wrench in my original plan to escape my apartment, kick up my feet and let some other willing soul do the cooking. Instead, Tuesday evening there I was cruising the aisles of the grocery store looking for rubbed sage, Gruyere cheese, a fresh turkey, cranberries, a fennel bulb, crystallized ginger and any other odd item written on my grocery list. While awaiting my turn with the cashier, I espied a little black girl in pigtails watching her mother pay for the groceries…with a food stamp card. That used to be me. Never again.

I hope.

“132.42” said the cashier.

I handed her a bunch of coupons. 10$ off the turkey, $8 off if I spend $80 or more…

“$111.53.”

Afrocity was happy. Groceries bagged and ready to roll on out into a rainy night.

Don’t think about it Afrocity….Too late. The desire to forget has lost its battle

1981. (flashback)

A food pantry was nice enough to deliver food to our apartment. Two bags of groceries filled with canned goods, a roast chicken and the kindness of strangers. There was even a jar of Tang instant breakfast drink mix. Young Afrocity was satisfied with the things brought by the food pantry. Mother was not.

“A roasting chicken?!?” she exclaimed, looking at the poor bird. “Who eats chicken on Thanksgiving? Just because we are getting free food does not mean they should just give us anything.To be perfect there has to be a turkey.”

I was silent. Food was in the house and not much else mattered to me. I ignored her complaining as I took the canned goods from the bag left by the nice man. Pumpkin pie filling, canned pears and peaches…

Mother’s disappointment in the food basket did not wan. “Let’s go to that pantry and get more better food…maybe a turkey even.”

I shook my head. Is she crazy? Not only was it 8PM on Thanksgiving Eve but it was cold and windy out. The food pantry was nearly 30 blocks away from our apartment in Oak park, IL.

“The man said only two bags per family,” I offered as an excuse, hoping she would give up the idea.

“How will they know? We can just go there and pretend we never got our delivery so they will give us more.”

I returned continually to the two bags per family rule. ” The man who delivered the groceries saw our faces and you signed a list he had. What if he is at the pantry now?”

Undaunted, mother grabbed her coat. “That is why we leave NOW. He had over 100 folks on that list he ain’t finished delivering yet.”

Vintage Thanksgiving postcard.

Before I could say cranberry sauce, I was trudging through a foot of snow with mother in hot pursuit of a food pantry that was thirty blocks away. My hands were freezing by block ten. My boots, already wet from coming home after school, were soaked and numbed my toes. We were both silent but the air was thick with regret. Mother’s trench coat was not equipped to deal with the wind, her tennis shoes disappeared in snow with every step.

“Are we almost there?” I asked shivering. Too much snow was blowing in my face to see the street signs. Walking with my small head down was the only solution. I was tired of walking and snow exacerbated the problem. Lifting each leg higher and higher as the food pantry drew closer and closer. I wanted to die. Several times mother stopped as if there were moments that she wanted to give up and go back home. But we had come too far to turn back.

I envisioned the friendly young white women at the pantry. Their long straight hair, was always parted down the middle. They always smiled.

“There it is,” Mother said through heavy breathing.

I cannot recall the name of the food pantry. Or the affiliation of those who operated it. It was simply a large Victorian style home. The wrap around porch cracked as we walked on the rock salt to ring the doorbell.

I kept my head towards the porch swing, now covered with snow. I did not want these people to see how stupid mother and I were for walking so far for a bag of groceries that we were lying about.

A young girl opened the door. Mother explained that we never received our basket. The girl went to a clipboard hanging in the mudroom. I sat on a bench in the parlor, legs numb and sticking straight out.

Another young girl appeared. “You guys must be freezing,” she said kneeling in front of me. “Do you want some hot cider?”

“No” mother said curtly but I nodded my head and the girl disappeared into the back of the house. Mother gave me a dirty look. The one she gave me whenever I went “rogue” and off-script. Cider meant we would have to wait till I drank it to leave. Mother wanted to get the food and get out.

“Your name is on the list…Oh, no I bet he tried to deliver as you were on your way here,” said the girl. ” You poor things walking all this way because you had no food. I do not have much left, our donations this year have been slow we did not receive any turkeys only chickens and capons…”

Perhaps the woman saw the look of despair on my face. 30 blocks for nothing.

Hesitantly, our hostess nodded , “Let me get you a 5lb bag of potatoes and some cans of chicken broth for you trouble. I will even through in a jug of cider for your daughter to make her own.”

Mother smiled. We had presented ourselves as broken people. Her mission was accomplished. My integrity and the nerve endings in my toes sold for a 5lb bag of potatoes and a jug of cider…That we now had to carry 30 blocks back home.

My cider was finished as I slowly thawed. Out went the broken mother and child caring charity food in brown paper bags. In came the delivery man. For a moment he stopped and starred at us. I know he knew that he had seen us. Mother put her head down as we passed him like three ships in the snowy night.

Thirty blocks later, I was home in bed, warm but feet still numb.

Mother stayed up late, she never came to bed that night. I could smell the chicken roasting, celery being chopped.

During the night I need to empty my small cider filled bladder. Quietly I walked, down the long railroad hallway until I passed the kitchen and saw a sight that would turn me into the most sympathetic narrator of my mother’s story. She was silently crying while looking at the roast chicken.”

She only wanted Thanksgiving Day to be perfect. That’s all. Sixty blocks for perfect Thanksgiving.

When I carve my turkey tonight, I will be especially thankful and I will remember my mother.

By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

-Matthew 7:13

Some Obama supporters may be disturbed to find that there is much truth in the above verse from the Bible. In 2008, as I was looking at Obama the man, I examined his character by his record, his actions and his accomplishments.

In some instances I saw a man that was well spoken and obviously ambitious. Similarly, I thought the same of his opponents. You may know that I supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primary. After she was “removed” from the competition, I was faced with a choice. A choice that was a helluva lot bigger than just Barack Hussein Obama. Prior to the 2008 campaigns, the Democrats left me cold.

I was changing. They were changing.

This shift in part, reflected attitudes that I had buried for some time. The “liberal agenda” was no longer something I was interested in pursuing. Pro-choice advocacy and gay rights were like two little children keeping me in a bad marriage. After taking a hard look at Barack Obama and a sad look at the DNC, I could no longer stay for the sake of the kids.

Today as I reflect on that decision, it has become obvious to me that while I left the Democrats, I could not have voted for Obama even if I had remained loyal to the party. This brings me back to the subject of one’s character and the fruits they bear. After looking at Obama’s character, there was no dilemma for Afrocity. I could not in good conscious vote for a man who:

1. Sat in Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years. Said he could not disown him, then throws him under the bus once it was politically expedient to do so.

2. Bought his home from a criminal.

3. Accomplished nothing in the Illinois Senate. Voted present most of the time.

4. Ran for the presidency after promising Illinois voters that he would not, yet decided to run after 150 days in the U.S. Senate. Thus spending most of his time on the campaign trail.

5. Promised not to take private campaign funding then went back on his word.

6. Said misogynist things about Hillary Clinton during the primaries.

7. Said that his grandmother was a typical “white woman”.

8. Is someone who uses race as means to cause political unrest and advance his career.

9. Has associations with slum lords and domestic terrorists. (birds of a feather)

10. Throws anyone under the bus at the moment they become a threat to his career or no longer useful.

11. Really had no record or experience of doing anything in his past except leaving one office to run for another.

12. Could obviously never be humble, never admit he made a mistake which equals arrogance. For example to say ” You can put lipstick on a pig…” , yet never apologize for it and move on rather than accuse those who were offended by it of “phony outrage”.

13. Failed to call the liberals out for the things they said and wore about Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. If I were he, I would have said to my supporters as McCain did to his, “chill out” that sort of behavior is not what I represent. Instead Obama seemed to revel in it and used their emotions to his advantage. Sure it won an election but it says a lot about one’s character.

14. Yelling “I have a bracelet too” during a debate with John McCain.

15. Dragged his own daughter down the streets of Chicago to go trick or treating as a photo op. The look on his face showed that he obviously did not want to be there. It was such a contrast to Sarah Palin taking Piper trick or treating in Pennsylvania. Palin actually wanted to be there and was enjoying herself, it was not a campaign afterthought.

16. Obviously suffers from a messiah complex, Greek temples…

17. Joe the Plumber. Obama was busted. When you are busted shut up and move on. I did not like him putting Joe down afterwards in his campaign speeches. It was tasteless and immature. That also goes for Obama’s use of any human campaign prop such as his stories about the Republican diner owner who did not sell sweet potato pie.

18. Phony stories about his history i.e. his parents meeting at Selma, Alabama. Uncle at Auschwitz story when it was Bergen Belsen I believe.

19. Not going to Hawaii after Toot died. It was strange. Very strange.

20. The way he begins a statement with “look” after someone asks him a challenging question. You know that the next thing out of his mouth is bullshit.

21. Making up his platform on the fly. Stealing health care initiatives from Hillary Clinton.

22. Not knowing Jack about foreign policy. “I will be tough on Afghanistan” Now we see where that has got us. Surprise, surprise . He lied.

23. Would employ general communistic propaganda tools during his campaign.

24. Arugula. Need I say more?

25. I will not wear that flag pin. Need I say more?

From I Own The World

I will stop here. Definitely, I could go on with 99 other problems but for the sake of my readers I will stop.

The things I listed may seem trivial to some however in my view, those actions spoke volumes about Obama’s character.

Let’s take for example Afghanistan. It was clear during the campaign that Obama did not give a vegan cupcake about foreign policy. There was no feeling or depth to his words. This behavior of yesteryear corresponds nicely with his “dithering” on sending more troops to Afghanistan.

Still not convinced that past deeds and behavior determines present experiences?

Let’s take a look at patterns exhibited in Barack Obama’s radical associations. Why are we surprised that he would choose crazy radical czars when he associated with the likes of Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers? Why the sudden surprise ACORN that he threw you under the bus when he did it to his own grandmother? Go away ACORN, he is done with you.

Why the surprise when Obama announced on CNN this week that he may not necessarily seek re-election in 2012. This is a set up in case his poll numbers are in the tank. If we do not re-elect Obama in 2012 according to him it is not because he is a terrible leader, it is because we are not ready for change and his ideas are unpopular. Sounds like a bad break up is coming in our future.

Also sounds like some one who runs for one political office, leaves and jumps to another…say something with the UN?

What you see is what you get. You just have to see it. It was there all of the time. If you decide to disapprove of it now after having voted for it once, daddy may punish you by not running again.

Before voting, look at the candidate’s past deeds and character. You may learn something.

Readers may have noticed that Afrocity has been on the hibernation tour. Burned out/fed up on all of the bullshit.

Obviously I need a pick me up. A shot in the arm from some conservative comrades. Alas, I am in Chicago. There are none. Only murders, cover-ups, cold weather, exorbitant taxes and Obama heads.

Even-so in this topsy-turvy political world called Chicago, there was one highlight. Mike Huckabee was coming to a nearby suburban Borders book store. I was craving a conservative fix and Fox News just not cutting it. Ironically, Al Gore was appearing the very next day in Chicago. No 35 mile drive to the burbs.

In the end, I saw neither man. Which one tempted me the most? Mike Huckabee of course. There is nothing worse than having to face your formerly liberal conscience to say that you do not give a rat’s ass about seeing the “goracle”. A man that you once voted for because you thought he would have made a great president but now you find him to be truly stomach turning. I can hear him screaming that I am not green therefore I am racist.

Replace “green” with “supporting the health care bill” and according to the honorable Jesse Jackson that makes Afrocity a racist too.

By Mike Soraghan – 11/18/09

“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill from Alabama,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

Not a black man because he voted against the health care reform bill.

The remark stirred a murmur at the reception, held by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Foundation as part of a series of events revolving around the 25th anniversary of Jackson’s run for president. Several CBC members were in attendance, including Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who’d introduced Jackson.

Davis, who is running for governor, is the only black member of Congress from Alabama.

He is also the only member of the CBC to have voted against the healthcare bill earlier this month.

Davis referred to Jackson’s 1988 run for president in a statement, issued through his office, that said he would not engage Jackson on his criticism.

“One of the reasons that I like and admire Rev. Jesse Jackson is that 21 years ago he inspired the idea that a black politician would not be judged simply as a black leader,” Davis’s statement said. “The best way to honor Rev. Jackson’s legacy is to decline to engage in an argument with him that begins and ends with race.”

Jackson said later that he “didn’t call anybody by name and I won’t.”

He added that he wasn’t saying that black lawmakers must vote a certain way. Instead, they should vote the interests of the people in their districts, and he said the healthcare bill would help Alabama because it’s one of the poorest states in the country.

“The poorest people need healthcare protection,” Jackson said. “They have the highest infant mortality and the lowest life expectancy. They’re dying from lack of access.”

Other members of the CBC found no fault in Jackson’s words. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) was in the audience. He called Jackson’s criticism of Davis “accurate,” but said he did not hear Jackson say “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

Now you know what Afrocity would say: Country before race, gender or party!!!

What gives Rev. Jesse Jackson the right to say who is and isn’t black? Look Jesse…Thank you for your contributions to African American history but you of all people, the man who stood by Martin Luther King Jr.’s side as he was assassinated should know that no man worth his salt will be intimated by the hateful words and deeds of others.

I suppose you voted for Obama while secretly wanting to cut off his nuts because ….he was black?

Jesse are you OK? Are we talking about the same man who fought for the civil rights of others? Now you have the audacity to take away someone’s “black card” (As if there should even be such an idiotic thing) because they voted against the health care bill?

Who died and made you the melanin fairy?

At precisely the point where we are in a so called “post racial America”, the weak Uncle Tom vs. the symbolic black Patriarchal Mandingo leadership meme once again attempts to strip power and virility from any person of color that dares to cut the cord with Democrats. Sounds like a plantation to me.

It is hard to imagine such idiocy but while we are speaking of race baiting morons, Chris Mathews was in rare form while describing a Sarah Palin book signing tour stop in Michigan:

I agree with Goldberg and while we are on the subject…Hey Chris Mathews how many black people live in your Upper Westside posh apartment complex in NYC?

I love Lou Dobbs and I am happy that he has left CNN. Now I no longer have a single reason to turn to that ghastly cable news station ever again. How refreshing it was to watch Lou on the FOX New’s the O’Reilly Factor last night. Lou had a good conversation with Bill-O, one which I hope is the first of many. BTW- Did not know that Lou actually had someone shoot at his home in New Jersey.

Here is the footage of Lou Dobb’s interview with O’Reilly, including the talking points memo.

Speaking Sunday at news conferences in Moline and Chicago, Gov. Pat Quinn called the Obama Administration’s interest in the prison near the Mississippi River a “great, great opportunity for our state.”

Housing the detainees here would be “good for our state, good for our economy and good for our public safety,” the governor said.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who also spoke, estimated that using Thomson to hold terror suspects would generate more than 2,000 local jobs directly related to the facility and an additional 1,000 in the surrounding community.

“People are struggling to keep their homes. … They’re getting desperate. With the recession and the loss of jobs, they’re not sure which way to turn,” Durbin said. “Now they’ve got a chance, a fighting chance.”

Republicans on Saturday warned of the security risks posed by housing terror suspects in Illinois.

Republican U.S. Rep. Donald Manzullo, whose district includes Thomson, was among several members of Illinois’ congressional delegation to sign the letter.

Durbin said Sunday he was confident the detainees would not be a threat.

The saga of violence continues:

Mayhem erupts throughout city after appeal to end violence

November 15, 2009

After community activists pleaded earlier for a day without killing, violence erupted throughout the city after the stroke of midnight on Saturday, leaving at least two people dead and several injured.

At about 12:06 a.m., Frederick Evans, 20, of the 6800 block of South Ada Street was found shot to death in an alley in the 500 block of West 58th Street. He was shot in his back and chest.

Witnesses told police Evans was involved in a dice game shortly before midnight, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer JoAnn Taylor. Evans was seen being chased by a unknown person who opened fire, Taylor said. He ran to an alley to take cover before collapsing.

A handgun was recovered from the scene, Taylor said.

Minutes after Evans’ shooting, a 32-year-old man was shot at about 12:13 a.m. on Chicago’s West Side in the Lawndale neighborhood. Police said he was shot after he watched a fight in the 3900 block of West Ogden Avenue. He suffered wounds to his leg and thigh, police said.

At about 2 a.m., Howard Hodges, of Park Forest, was shot and struck by a car near a lounge in the Chatham neighborhood. Hodges, 34, was pronounced dead on the scene.

Another man also was shot in front of the lounge located in the 8300 block of South Vincennes Avenue, but he was taken to St. Bernard Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said he suffered a wound to his shoulder.

Later, two other people were stabbed in the Englewood neighborhood at about 3:15 a.m. in the 6600 block of South Carpenter Street, and three people were shot in the Brighton Park neighborhood at about 5 a.m. near 47th Street and Homan Avenue, police said.

Several community activist groups and teens met throughout the city Saturday to discuss ways to end the violence in Chicago neighborhoods.

And finally…If the head of the Chicago Public School’s Board of Education commits suicide what hope is left for the actual kids who attend Chicago Public Schools? You know..the folks who see the violence on the daily basis.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Chicago Public School board chairman Michael Scott’s death ruled suicide

November 16, 2009

The death of Chicago School Board President Michael Scott was ruled a suicide this afternoon by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, officials said.

When police found his body early this morning, Scott was face down in a foot of water along the Chicago River downtown, a .380-caliber handgun under his body, a source said…

The 60-year-old Scott, Mayor Daley’s go-to-guy for years, had a gunshot wound to his left temple.

He left behind his cell phone on a ledge overlooking the river on the west side of the Apparel Center, 350 N. Orleans.

But he left no note, a source said.

Scott, who was reported missing by his family Sunday, night had apparently plunged about 15 feet from the ledge into the shallow water. His car — a blue Cadillac — was found about 30 feet from his body, a source said.

Police found the body at 3:15 a.m. It was taken to the department’s Marine Unit headquarters and then transported to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

As details continued to emerge about the stunning death of the head of Chicago’s school board, family, friends, colleagues expressed their sadness.

An ashen Daley said he saw no indication that his close friend was troubled, saying Scott’s death “is a shock for everyone.”

“No, no. None whatsoever,” Daley said when asked if he sensed Scott was struggling with personal issues. “Mike was always helping people with troubles.”…

A stunned Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up at the scene Monday morning after hearing about Scott’s death on the news. He said he spoke with him last week — and Scott sounded normal to him.

“Everyone thought Michael was their guy,” Jackson said. “People are so very sad. .. . The suddenness of it all — midday has become midnight. The sun has been eclipsed.”

Jackson described Scott as someone equally comfortable working with Chicago’s poorest children or sitting courtside at a Bulls game.

“That’s why I think the mayor leaned on Michael the most,” Jackson said.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, issued a statement saying he was “shocked and saddened.”